Sell That Ye Have - Glenn Conjurske
“Sell That Ye Have”
by Glenn Conjurske
“Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:33-34.
This plain command of Christ, though its substance is repeated several times in the New Testament, is one of the many which are smugly ignored by the modern evangelical church. Consider your own ways: do you act upon this scripture? Do you live by it? Have you ever so much as seriously inquired, in the presence and the fear of God, exactly what it is that he here requires of you? Do you live one whit differently now than you would if this scripture had never been written?
As to the meaning of this scripture, there can be little doubt about that. It means what it says. It means that we are to sell what we have, and give alms. George Müller, much admired in the modern church, but little known and less followed, says the following on this and other scriptures: “`Sell that ye have, and give alms.’ Luke xii. 33. `Owe no man anything.’ Rom. xiii. 8. It may be said, surely these passages cannot be taken literally, for how then would the people of God be able to pass through the world. The state of mind enjoined in John vii. 17, will cause such objections to vanish. WHOSOEVER IS WILLING TO ACT OUT these commandments of the Lord LITERALLY, will, I believe, be led with me to see that, to take them LITERALLY, is the will of God.”
At this point folks will begin to cavil, and say, “What? does this mean that we are to sell every last article which we possess?” The simple answer to that is, Of course not. Nor does the Lord mean so in those other places where he says “Sell whatsoever thou hast,” and “Sell all that thou hast.” Common sense forbids such a thought. Common sense tells you that the Lord did not mean for you to sell your last potato, and starve. He that instructed his disciples to gather up the very broken fragments of bread, “that nothing be lost,” and evidently approved of their having baskets with which to do the gathering, cannot have meant that. Common sense tells you that he did not mean for you to sell your last shirt or dress, and go naked. To do so would be sin, which the Lord never required of anyone.
But common sense will equally teach us that the Lord certainly must have meant something by these solemn injunctions. A single eye, which is set upon doing the will of God regardless of what it is or what it costs, will search deeper, to find out exactly what he did mean. The careless and lukewarm, the soft and self-indulgent, will content themselves to suppose (if they think of this scripture at all) that it obviously cannot mean literally all that it says—-and think or care nothing further about what it does mean.
But as said, the Lord obviously means something by these solemn words, and something very important, too, for it is by obedience to this command that we are to provide for ourselves treasures in heaven. He says, “Sell that ye have.” What does this mean? That it does not mean to sell every last article we possess, common sense tells us, and so does Scripture, for the Bible says, “Be content with such things as ye have,” and “Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.” (Heb. 13:5;
I Tim. 6:8). The former of these scriptures plainly teaches us that it is permissible for us to have certain things, and the latter informs us what sort of things are acceptable—-namely, the necessities of life. “Food and raiment”—-or food and shelter, as some would interpret it. Alford (The Greek Testament) says, “some take it of both clothing and dwelling: perhaps rightly.”
And if common sense (supported by Scripture) will allow us to have the common necessities of life, it will of course allow us also to have the means of procuring them—-the tools of our craft or trade. Paul did not make tents out of nothing. If it will allow us food, it will of course allow us the means of preparing and eating our food. Dishes, a table and chairs
—-a bed, all of the common necessities of life. If it will allow us a place of shelter, it will allow the means of maintaining it—-a ladder, a saw, a hammer and nails. Neither God nor any sober-minded man will grudge to any man to have such like things, and all of this can be easily proved from the Bible as well as from common sense.
But further, as we are not here merely to subsist, but to do the work of the Lord, we may certainly have those things which will facilitate our doing it—-“books and parchments” (II Tim. 4:13)—-“paper and ink”
(II Jn. 12)—-“ink and pen” (III Jn. 13)—-a typewriter, a desk, a printing press, a mode of transportation.
Still further. All necessity is relative. One thing may be necessary to sustain life, but it may require something further to sustain health. One tool may not be necessary merely to do a task, but it may be necessary to do it well. One thing may be necessary merely to do a job, but something else may be necessary to save time in doing it. I am neither so ascetic or so hyperspiritual as to quarrel with any of this, though I would insist that there is need of great carefulness, and of a single eye, in the application of it. Define necessity as broadly as you will, as broadly as you can, in the presence and fear of God, with a single eye to his glory, and a heart fully consecrated to his cause, and neither God, nor Scripture, nor I, will have any quarrel with you.
But after all of this is freely granted, we are still left with the obvious fact that “Sell that ye have” must mean something. Neither is its meaning far to seek. If the Bible admonishes us to be content with common necessities, this plainly implies that we ought to part with those things which are not necessities. “Sell that ye have”—-not those things which are necessary for good and godly purposes, to sustain life and health, or to do the work of the Lord—-(unless we have them in unnecessary abundance or elegance, such as is a practical denial that we are pilgrims and strangers on the earth)—-but those things which contribute nothing to such legitimate ends. “Sell that ye have,” your needless and useless things—-your luxuries and adornments—-your collections and collectibles—-your pets and hobbies, none of which contribute anything to the legitimate ends of your being, but rob you instead of the time and money which ought to be devoted to those ends—-your pictures and antiques and ornaments and knickknacks, which you possess for no higher purpose than to gratify the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. “Sell that ye have, and give alms” is the plain command of him whom you call your Lord. And what avails it for you to call him “Lord, Lord,” if you do not the things which he says?
Alas! instead of simple single-eyed obedience to this plain command of Christ, we find the modern church filled with excuses for not obeying it. Many such excuses I have heard. People will excuse their having useless or luxurious things by saying, “It didn’t cost me very much.” But what has that to do with the subject? Your Lord does not say, “Sell what you paid a high price for,” but “Sell that ye have.”
We hear further, “It was given to me.” But again, the Lord does not say, “Sell what you bought,” but “Sell that ye have”—-regardless of where you may have gotten it. A little of faithfulness to the spirit of this scripture—-a little of faithfulness to the principle which it so plainly sets forth—-will lead you to refuse in the first place many of those things which people might give to you. If we ought to sell the needless things which we have, then it goes without saying that we ought to refrain from acquiring any more of the same sort of things.
But we come to a more plausible excuse: “The reason for selling what we have is to give alms—-to give to those who have need—-but many of those things which I possess are worth very little, and would hardly contribute anything to that end.” To this I answer, The reason for selling what you have is certainly not primarily to give alms, as I shall point out shortly from the text itself. But supposing that were the primary reason, or even the only reason, the text does not say, “Sell that which will bring a good price,” but “Sell that ye have.”
Some may carry this objection farther, and say, “Many of those things which I have are not worth selling, or perhaps not saleable at all. It is probable that no one would buy them, and if they would, the money which they would bring would not repay me for the time and trouble of selling them.” Well, suppose all of this to be strictly true. Is that a legitimate excuse not to “sell that ye have”? Does it not rather plainly appear that things which are not worth selling are not worth keeping? If it is really worth nothing, by all means throw it away!
But I suppose I have mistaken your meaning. You do not mean to imply that those things are worth nothing at all. You mean rather to say, “The things which I have may not be worth anything to anyone else, but they are worth something to me.” Yes, indeed, and you have just rehearsed the very best of all reasons why you should get rid of them. You have, in fact, arrived at the true and spiritual reason, enunciated by the Lord himself in the text of this article, why you should part with those things: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:34).
The real purpose which underlies this commandment is not for the good of the poor, but for your own good. It is that you might “provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.” The giving alms—-and indeed the selling—-are only the means to that end. The real spiritual reason which underlies all is to wean your heart from earth and attach it to heaven. I have heard some excuse themselves by saying “We have these things, but they are not our treasures.” But your plea is lame. You give yourself the lie. If they are not your treasures, why are you so unwilling to part with them? Why will you disobey the plain command of Christ in order to cling to them? Moreover, your excuse goes directly against the plain meaning of the text. “Sell that ye have, and give alms, … for where your treasure is, there will your heart be.” This certainly teaches that what “ye have” is “your treasure,” plain and simple. Part, therefore, with your treasures on the earth, and lay up treasures in heaven.
This you may do by giving to the poor. “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” (Luke 16:9). Those who have this world’s goods are charged to be “rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” (I Tim. 6:18-19). You need no great depth or spirituality or knowledge or spiritual gifts to do this. The simplest saint of God may thus lay up for himself treasures in heaven, for “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again” (Prov. 19:17)—-and not merely in the perishing things of this life, but in “treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.”
But as it is for your own good to obey this command of your Lord and Master, so it will certainly be to your eternal detriment to ignore it, for you will have an account to give not only for your treatment of the command of Christ, but also for the use you have made of the goods he has committed to you. On this point the great John Wesley writes, “Many years ago, when I was at Oxford, in a cold winter’s day, a young maid (one of those we kept at school) called upon me. I said, You seem half starved. Have you nothing to cover you but that thin linen gown? She said, `Sir, this is all I have!’ I put my hand in my pocket; but found I had scarce any money left, having just paid away what I had. It immediately struck me, Will thy Master say, `Well done, good and faithful steward! Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money which might have screened this poor creature from the cold!’ Oh, justice! Oh mercy! Are not these pictures the blood of this poor maid! See thy expensive apparel in the same light: thy gown, hat, head dress! Every thing about thee, which cost more than Christian duty required thee to lay out, is the blood of the poor! Oh be wise for the time to come! Be more merciful! More faithful to God and man! More abundantly adorned (like men and women professing godliness) with good works!” It is safe enough for modern Christians to admire John Wesley, provided it be at a distance. Who follows in his footsteps?
But it may be that in these days of fulness of bread and abundance of idleness you are honestly at a loss to find cases of legitimate poverty. An ancient English proverb says, “There is God’s poor, and the devil’s poor,” and a later form of it adds, “the first from Providence, the other from vice.” I can scarcely suppose we ought to relieve “the devil’s poor”—-the gamblers, the drunken, and the lazy. I used to give to every beggar on the street, when I was too simple to know that they were spending it up for drink. The Bible says also, “If any man will not work, neither should he eat.” (II Thes. 3:10). This plainly implies that we ought not to support or feed such a man. D. L. Moody says on this subject, “A man was talking to me, out here the other day, that he didn’t believe there was any love at all, that Christians professed to have love, but he didn’t believe men could have two coats; and I think he reflected on me, because I had on my overcoat at the time, and he hadn’t got any. I looked at him and said: `Suppose I should give you one of my coats, you would drink it up before sundown. I love you too much to give you my coat and have you drink it up.’ A good many people are complaining now that Christians don’t have the love they ought to have; but I tell you it is no sign of want of love that we don’t love the lazy man. I have no sympathy with those men that are just begging twelve months of the year. It would be a good thing, I believe, to have them die off. They are of no good.” This is very strong language, and such as I would not use myself. Nevertheless, I am in complete agreement with the principle which underlies it.
The primary reason for the command in our text is that we might put our treasures and our hearts in heaven. The selling and giving alms, I suppose, is enjoined in order that we might make a wise disposition of our earthly goods. But where is the wisdom of giving to “the devil’s poor,” only to increase their capabilities for laziness and vice? And yet in this land so highly favored by Providence, “God’s poor” may be few and far between. What then? Does this relieve you of your responsibility to “sell that ye have, and give alms”? Not in the least, for remember, this commandment does not exist merely for the physical good of the poor, but for the spiritual good of your own soul. It exists to move you to part with your treasures on the earth and lay up treasures in heaven, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Supposing the poor are actually scarce in these days of plenty and luxury, is there never a faithful servant of God whose burdens you might help to ease, who may struggle to feed many mouths with few dollars, who may lack the money he could use to print or to travel for the work of the Lord, who perhaps can ill afford the books he could use to feed his own soul and the souls of the people?
Many even of women thus ministered unto the Lord of their substance (Luke 8:3), and if you are able to find a faithful and self-denying servant of his, you also may certainly lay up treasures above by giving to such a man, as Paul’s beloved Philippians did to Paul “once and again,” and yet “again” (Phil. 4:16, 10), thus contributing to relieve the man of God of some of his earthly cares, and free him to care for the things of God and the souls of men, and thus at the same time gaining fruit to abound to their own account (vs. 17), providing for themselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens which faileth not. What a treasure in the heavens we may suppose those men now have who four hundred years ago contributed to the maintenance of poor John Foxe (pressed all of his life by poverty), while he devoted all of his powers to researching and writing his famous Book of Martyrs, which has so much blessed the church of God from that day to this. Do they now regret that they then parted with their needless possessions in order to serve the cause and testimony of Christ?
But how will you give account to your Master if you live your life careless and heedless of his plain commandment?
Glenn Conjurske